How NJ Transit used pizza to get more people to the beach this summer

A promotional sticker advertising NJ Transit's summer services that was placed on pizzas delivered to New Yorkers in four boroughs this summer. (Larry Higgs |NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

How did NJ Transit increase ridership and sales of beach packages on trains to the shore this summer? The answer lies in pizza.

NJ Transit officials targeted advertisements to people most likely to ride the train to the beach, by serving up promotions on pizza boxes in four of the New York City's five boroughs, said Penny Bassett, an NJ Transit spokeswoman.

"We did non-traditional marketing tactics for the North Jersey Coast Line," Bassett said. "We found the majority of the riders are 25 to 35 and live in Manhattan. "We put stickers on pizza boxes delivered throughout four boroughs."

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NJ Transit also applied a similar marketing tactic, which increased ridership on the 316 bus route between Cape May and Wildwood, placing advertisements on magazines in nail salons in the area served by the bus, Bassett said.

"We found a lot of our customers are female and we decided to advertise in nail salons in that corridor," she said. "Bus operations said it was the first time they saw real growth."

That effort was augmented by ads in movie theaters, she said. NJ Transit also took a similar tactic to promote its airport rail service by showing in-flight ads on US Air, United and American airlines flights, Bassett said.